Tributes paid to Ken Norton, the boxer who broke Mohammad Ali’s jaw

Former heavyweight boxing champion Ken Norton, who once brokeMuhammad Ali’s jaw, has died aged 70.

Norton, who had been ill for some time following a series of strokes, died in a care home in Arizona yesterday.

He fought three bruising bouts with Ali, winning their first in California in 1973, before going on to losing the second and third fights.

Close friend and former manager Patrick Tenore said: “He was a warm and generous man. He was a champion and a fighter and bright-eyed and anxious to see the next day and a dear friend of 20 years. He never had a bad word about boxing or any of his opponents.”

Norton’s ex-business manager Gene Kilroy said of the 1973 fight with “the greatest”: “Ali thought it would be an easy fight. But Norton was unorthodox. Instead of jabbing from above like most fighters, he would put his hand down and jab up at Ali.”

After the fight, Norton visited Ali in hospital where he was having his broken jaw wired. Ali told Norton that he never wanted to fight him again.

However, after their third and final fight on September 28, 1976 in New York’s, Ali controversially managed to retain the heavyweight title amid great booing from the thousands of spectators. Norton said afterwards: “I was never the same fighter after that. I never trained so hard again, never could put the same feeling into it. I was at my best that night, in the best shape I ever was.” Norton began boxing when he served with the US Marines, turning professional in 1967.

He won the WBC heavyweight championship in 1977, before he lost the title to Larry Holmes in a classic, 15-round thriller the following year — hailed as one of boxing’s most exciting fights.

He finished with a record of 42 wins, seven loses and one draw. In 1986 when his car veered off the road in Los Angeles he was in a coma for a year.

The father-of-five also enjoyed a film and TV career, once appearing in an episode of the A-Team.